The “it” goal for 2024 is to become a hybrid athlete and for good reason. Training more than one discipline, such as powerlifting and endurance running, can help prevent overuse injury, lead to an enhanced physique and create an overall more balanced life. Triathletes have been multi sport training since the 70’s, proof that it is possible! Below we explain how to become a hybrid athlete.
1. How to become a hybrid athlete? Set goals.
If your goal is to “run far and lift heavy” your training is going to suffer due to a lack of direction. Running far is a great goal, but how far? Narrow your focus. With infinite combinations of training styles and competitions it can be hard to narrow down your goals. Determine what sports you enjoy, how they make you feel, and how they fit in to your life. Maybe you want to be a boxer but you hate getting hit in the face. Do yourself a favor, bro, and reconsider your goals. If you really love the idea of running an ultramarathon but also refuse to miss brunch every Saturday, getting your back to back long runs in on the weekend is going to be nearly impossible.
Make your goals meaningful. For the love of Moses, please do not do the same challenge as the guys on youtube. Do the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning to train- even on the days when you lose all motivation. It could be training to run across your favorite glacier in crampons and simultaneously training to kayak up the Mississippi River backwards. Or it could be ultramarathons and strong man (we love both!). Do what makes you come alive.
2. Be Patient.
Now that you have stoked your passion, be conservative at first. If you have never deadlifted or you don’t own a bike, then do not start with a goal of completing an Ironman triathlon and winning a powerlifting meet in your first year. Allow your body the time to adapt to the new stimulus or you may spend more time rehabbing than training. We find that having a long term “almost impossible” goal keeps us hungry but having progressive short term goals will keep you motivated and serve as benchmarks to check your fitness.
It takes time. Remember that. Don’t you dare give up on yourself after only two months of running. If you are starting a new sport in adulthood you have to realize that you are not in your young body anymore. I know it still feels like 1984 was 20 years ago but it wasn’t. It was 40 years ago. We got wiser and our bodies got stiffer. Love your body right now and be patient knowing that it will adapt if you treat it right.
3.Finish your workouts.
Do you really want to know how to become a hybrid athlete? Finish your workouts. This is the adaptation stuff we were just talking about. The last mile of the run is where the adaptation happens. You probably understand the concept of progressive overload. Basically, you have to keep increasing the the work you do in order to see results. You wouldn’t expect to go from a 100 lbs. bench press to a 200 lbs. bench press in a month, would you? Likewise, you can’t progress from 2 miles to 26.2 miles to 50 miles overnight.
Photo by Alessio Soggetti on Unsplash
When you are doing your long run, the last mile is likely going to hurt. It is going to hurt a lot. This is where the magic happens. The feeling of pain is actually your body screaming, “this is new! I’ve never run this far before!” or “I’ve never done this many reps at this weight!” By pushing past the pain you are forcing your body to adapt to new levels of stress so you can go harder next time.
4. Train smarter- ask for help when needed.
Hear me out. Yes you have to be patient and yes you need to finish your workouts. But the biggest mistake that prevents progress is overtraining. This is not a contradiction- It takes wisdom to know when to push and when to rest. One plus one does not always equal two. For example, adding a marathon training program from the internet to your existing powerlifting program and trying to implement both simultaneously is a recipe for disaster. Our coaches can teach you how to become a hybrid athlete, whatever goal you choose.
If you choose not to work with a coach, we suggest cutting back on your current discipline in both volume and intensity as you begin to taper in your new training. It is better to err on the side of under training for a few weeks than to overtrain. As you go, listen to your body and increase the work until you reach your goal, making sure to prioritize rest and nutrition. It is much easier to gain fitness by pushing harder next week than it is to be sidelined for a month due to a stress fracture or overtraining fatigue.
5. How to become a hybrid athlete? Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Although we have created a term for it in recent years, people all over the world have been hybrid athletes for ages. They simply loved two sports so they did two sports. They just went off and did it and enjoyed the process instead of overthinking it.
Whatever you do, do not compare yourself to the you tuber who trains as his full time job. He trains excessively because that is literally his job. You have a career outside of training. Hopefully you also have friends and family or at least a dog. Enjoy them while you can. Life is short. Go huge with your goals, but don’t miss out on life outside of sport.